A cryosleep was not instant. Every person would tell you conflicting reports of what it felt like, that long sleep. Some felt their consciousness floating in a void, endlessly waiting to be awoken once more. Some experience enlightenment, an account of meeting with a higher, all-loving being and a trip to what could only be called heaven. Some, like Manusya, replayed memories of their lives in a loop.
Manusya dreamt of his time on the last Ark. He was an orphan, but everyone was. During the final stretch of the war against the Despair that he experienced growing up, sex and relationships were prohibited. Children were born in tubes and were sent to orphanages run by Artificial Intelligence. From there, the Central Command will discover each children's talents and assign them occupations in the Arks. After they grew old enough, everyone would be conscripted into being soldiers.
Manusya was, indeed, an orphan like everyone else. Only, what made him special was that he was not sent to the orphanage, but rather raised by humans. No one knew why, Manusya kept looking for answers but all the records were sealed. No one would tell him why he was different from all the other children, why he was reared like the child of an ancient — with love and compassion and with parents. But he was grateful for it.
A long dream. Happiness. Sadness. He was reaching out to something before—
Suddenly, Manusya could feel all of his five senses again. He opened his eyes. It was cold and dark He could hear a scream, it sounded...human. A young voice. He looked at the source of the scream to find a young boy with a primitive garment looking up at him while down on the floor at his bottom. He shouted a word he had never heard before in any of the human languages that he knew of.
It cannot be! Manusya was in disbelief. He could not tell anymore if he was still inside his cryosleep or back in the real world. It had been an unfathomably long time ever since he saw another human. The sight of one in front of him caused a sense of rush in his head. He leapt out of his cryosleep pod and approached the boy who had gone unconscious hurriedly.
"A human" he shouted in joy. Manusya crouched down and started to hold the boy in his arms and started crying uncontrollably. A wave of emotions, an undescribable loneliness that was finally lifted. A dry desert being drenched in rainwater. He was the last human alive, and now he had found another.
"I accomplished my mission!" He bellowed with tears streaming down his face, lips curved upwards. "Sapien!" He called out.
No response.
Manusya noticed the lack of an answer and called out again. "Sapien! I need a situation report! Did you finally wake me up?"
No response.
"Sapien! Are you there?"
Suddenly, a voice answered. But it was not who he was expecting.
"VOICE RECOGNIZED. CRYOSLEEP POD DISCONNECTED. MANUSYA, CODENAME MESSIAH. SERIAL NUMBER 5512TM." Unlike Sapien, who possessed the natural voice and speaking cadence of a human being, this voice was harsh and ragged, as if a monster mimicked a human.
"Wait," Manusya released the unconscious boy and stood up. "Erectus? is that you?" he said.
"AFFIRMATIVE. I WAS TASKED WITH ALL OPERATIONAL TASKS OF THE SHIP EVER SINCE 'SAPIEN' LEFT."
If Sapien was the most advanced Artificial Intelligence that humans had ever invented, then Erectus was a generation below that. Sapien had reached near sentience and achieved the Turing Test. Erectus, on the other hand, was still a highly advanced AI that could perform calculations and tasks, but could not possess the abstract thinking and agency of a human. Humans had banned the use and development of sentient AI until ending stretch of the war against the Despair, when they reached their final desperation and required the aid of AI for military tactics. During the mission, Sapien was tasked as Manusya's personal assistant and collaborator, whilst Erectus ran the ship's functions.
"Sapien left!?" Manusya exclaimed. "Explain!"
"AFFIRMATIVE. SAPIEN HAD DETACHED ITSELF FROM THE MAIN FRAMEWORK OF THE SHIP APPROXIMATELY 1087 YEARS AGO, EARTH TIME ADJUSTED WITH THE REVOLUTION OF THIS PLANET. THE SHIP'S FUNCTIONS HAVE BEEN IN CRITICAL CONDITION FOR APPROXIMATELY 143 YEARS." Erectus answered.
"By the presence of this human," Manusya looked down at the sleeping boy. "I assume the life cultivation was a success?"
"AFFIRMATIVE."
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"Then why did Sapien detach itself from the framework? And what of this boy? Is there a civilization of humans outside? Where are we?" Manusya asked frantically.
"ERROR, MANY OF THE FILES HAD BEEN CORRUPTED. I AM UNABLE TO GIVE A SUFFICIENT ANSWER."
Manusya's eyes widened. "What does that mean? Sapien left and you say the files are corrupted." his mouth opened wide in shock."Was I awoken too early?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. IT IS MY ASSESSMENT THAT SAPIEN HAD INTENDED TO RETURN HERE TO RELEASE MASTER MANUSYA FROM CRYOSLEEP WHEN IT WAS TIME. THAT PERSON THAT IS CURRENTLY UNCONSCIOUS MANAGED TO PREMATURELY END THE CRYOSLEEP" Erectus answered.
Manusya fell to his knees. "Fucking hell." He scratched his head and heaved a deep breath to calm himself.
I must stay calm. The mission was a success, even with some complications like this. This human boy I see meant that life flourished. Manusya began examining the boy. His clothing is made out of leather and fur, which also means animals. There is water to drink, animals to eat, and perhaps plants to consume. They are at the level of creating some sort of society. This is great news.
Manusya stood up again after reassuring himself. It was already a miracle we found this planet, it was more of a miracle that we managed to restart civilization and prevent the extinction of humanity. Now, I must perform my role as steward.
"Erectus, which files are corrupted? Can you fix them?" Manusya asked calmly.
"ALL FILES RELATED TO THE PLANET AND ITS INHABITANTS ARE CORRUPTED. ALL FILES RELATED TO LOGS ARE CORRUPTED." Erectus replied.
Manusya furrowed his brows. "How long has it been since we landed here?"
"IT HAS BEEN APPROXIMATELY 31.131 YEARS IN EARTH TIME"
Over thirty thousand years! Manusya exclaimed in his mind. Truth be told, he did not know if that compared to his time alone in space, searching for a planet to colonize.
"Erectus, turn on the lights," Manusya said and the lights were turned on immediately. The ship was desolate and broken. Various equipment was barely holding on as thousands of years of being exposed to the natural elements were taking its toll. It was a miracle anything still worked.
Manusya looked around and asked, "What's the status of the ship?"
"THE SHIP IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION. FLIGHT IMPOSSIBLE. LIFE CREATION IMPOSSIBLE. HUMAN LIBRARY PARTIALLY CORRUPTED. WEAPONRY STORAGE AVAILABLE. NANO PRINTERS AVAILABLE. MATERIAL STORAGE IS DEPLETED. OTHER FUNCTIONS PARTIALLY CORRUPTED OR DESTROYED." Erectus replied.
Manusya sighed in displeasure. My task will be harder than I thought. "Do we have the means to contact Sapien?" he asked.
"NEGATIVE. BEACONS DESTROYED."
Manusya rubbed his chin to think. "The nano printers are still online, correct? Can we repair everything if we manage to find all the materials required?"
"AFFIRMATIVE."
"How long would it take?"
"UNABLE TO DETERMINE. IT IS ADVISED MASTER MANUSYA AID IN THIS REPAIR AND FIND THE NECESSARY MATERIALS. OUR RADAR WILL ALSO ATTEMPT TO FIND THE NEAREST MATERIALS TO EASE THIS PROCESS."
Manusya sighed. "Alright. I suppose I will." he finally turned his attention again to the unconscious boy. "Erectus, wake him up."
"AFFIRMATIVE"
The floor near the boy suddenly opened up to reveal a robotic arm that quickly approached the boy's body.
"ADMINISTERING SMALL SHOCK."
The sound of electricity was audible and a jolt struck the boy's body.
The boy sprang up to life and stood up in a flash. Manusya chuckled. He looked like a cartoon character.
The boy, Numa, looked around in shock and shouted something again as he looked at Manusya. He was afraid.
"A language I cannot understand," Manusya said, smiling. "Wonderful! It seems to be quite complex as well. This means life and civilization did indeed start again."
Numa started walking backwards in fear slowly while spouting unknown sentences.
"I'm sorry for this, but this will not be helpful for us both if we keep going like this." Manusya frowned. "Erectus, implant him the universal chip."
"AFFIRMATIVE."
Two robotic arms sprang up from the floor and held down Numa. The boy screamed in fear and even without understanding the language, one could tell he was begging for his life.
"Go easy on him," Manusya said.
The two arms began to administer the boy with a syringe located on the neck area. The boy reacted violently and began convulsing in agony. After around thirty seconds of seizures, the boy stopped struggling and woke up once more.
"What...is this?" Numa began conversing in the Universal Language, or UL, the language that was created by space-faring humans to break down all cultural barriers in times of interstellar war. The universal chip was administered to every human child so they could not only understand the language instantly but also gain other functions such as the Augmented Reality interface and cognitive aid that it provided.
Numa was confused. He was speaking a language he did not know. He could understand everything, the words of his Osmanian native tongue perfectly translated into this unknown language. More than that, he could think in this new language. He was comprehending it perfectly. And what's more, he saw all these things floating in front of him. Symbols...numbers indicating things that he did not know. As he looked at the man in front of him, he could see numbers and words indicating various things.
"Manu...sya?" Numa said as if he was reading something.
"That's right. That's my name. I see you have adjusted well to the chip." Manusya replied.
Numa began looking at Manusya differently, now with fear and reverence. "You are a god!"
Manusya shook his head. "I am not."
"But..." Numa began looking around the lit room now, seeing things beyond his understanding. Unlike before, he could see words floating next to the various contraptions around the massive room as if indicating the name and function of each one.
"You can only be one. All these things! It's like something out of a legend. And I'm speaking these words that I do not recognize yet understand..." Numa's eyes shone brightly. His intuition was correct. The moment he stepped inside the cave, a brand new story had begun.
"Nevermind that," Manusya said. "What's your name, boy? Can you tell me more about yourself? Where did you come from?" Manusya smiled, he was waiting eagerly for the story of the new humans.